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Thoughts on the SEA Games

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As I’m writing this, the Philippines is leading the gold medal rush in the 30th holding of the SEA Games held in various venues here in our country.

The latest medal count (as of 7 pm, Friday, Dec. 6) shows the Philippines with 70 gold medals, far outpacing our previous showing in Malaysia in 2017 where we only won 24 gold medals, and finishing at 6th place.

The 70 gold medals were won in the following sports: arnis, dancesport, wushu, obstacle course, triathlon, cycling, gymnastics, weightlifting, shooting, judo, sambo, skateboarding, sepak takraw, basketball, lawn bowls, fencing, kurash, pencak silat, aquatics, duathlon, modern pentathlon, muay, athletics, and golf.

We also have won so far 53 silver medals (one of which was garnered by our very own Eleazar “JR” Barba in mountain biking-downhill; and 49 bronze medals, or a total of 172 medals in the last seven days.

Malaysia, the overall winner back in 2017, is currently in 5th place with 27 gold medals.

Although there are many more gold medals to be won in the next five days (hopefully in the fields of underwater hockey, ice skating, aquatics water polo, squash, canoe, polo, billiards, or tennis for the Philippines), the question is, “What can explain the huge improvement by the Philippines’ 1,496-strong contingent?”

It is interesting to note that the host country has the right to select the sports they wish to include in the year’s competition. They also have the right to suggest to remove any sport they believe can be deleted.

So it comes to no surprise that the host country would naturally pick the sporting event that it excels in, and remove those events where they are not as competent.

As I researched back, Malaysia did just that in their gold medal romp in 2017 when they far-outpaced other countries with 145 gold medals.

That time, Malaysia did exclude some sports that the Philippines was so prepared for.

So now we wonder: “Should this be the norm that the host country gets to select the sporting events?”

There are actually so many events that one wonders what sport eventually does not get included.

It could even get ridiculous with whatever new sports are included. How about a Pig Rodeo? Or a Bamboo Pole Vault? Meanwhile….

Go for more gold, Philippines!

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Author’s email: [email protected]

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